oil

WASHINGTON - As the Department of Interior and Bureau of Land Management evaluate the impacts that oil and gas development would have on red rock wilderness lands in Utah, conservation groups are calling for ongoing protection of these treasured areas. Following the Bush Administration’s attempted last-minute auction of 77 parcels of lands last year, the courts ruled that BLM did not follow proper procedures.

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WASHINGTON – More than 150,000 people have asked the federal government to halt plans currently in process to open 73.4 million acres of the Arctic Ocean to oil and gas leasing – the largest block of Arctic Ocean waters yet to be offered to the oil and gas industry.

“We applaud Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for taking the first step toward restoring sound science and an open process to governing how best to manage our offshore energy reserves. We agree with Secretary Salazar that the Bush administration’s midnight regulations governing offshore leasing and drilling constituted a headlong rush that did not adequately consider science or account for the concerns of states, communities and other stakeholders.

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WASHINGTON – More than 100,000 acres of Utah wilderness will be protected from oil and gas drilling after the Department of Interior announced today that it will cancel 77 leases issued under the Bush administration. This is among the first actions taken by the Obama administration to protect America’s wild lands.

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Statement from David Moulton, The Wilderness Society's Director of Climate Change Policy

“The Obama administration clearly understands the urgency needed to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and to create new jobs through clean energy technologies. Any state willing to tackle global warming in a manner consistent with current law should be praised, not parried.

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UTAH — Background: On Election Day, the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Utah office announced that its December 19 lease sale would include oil and gas leases near Arches and Canyonlands, along with eastern Utah's Dinosaur National Monument. Two weeks ago, the National Park Service said it had improperly been left out of the loop and urged the BLM to remove from the sale list more than 90 lease parcels (covering about 130,000 acres) that were close to the parks.

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Nearly a year after the catastrophic BP Macondo exploratory well finally stopped spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the US Coast Guard affirmed before a U.S. Senate panel what many organizations, including The Wilderness Society, already knew: cleaning up an oil spill in the Arctic Ocean would be next to impossible.

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With the advent of spring, many Americans are looking forward to reconnecting with our lands. The oil companies, however, are looking forward to drilling on our lands.

With summer driving season just a few months off, the oil companies and their allies in Congress have begun to beat the drum about “more drilling.” They say that it will lower the price at the pump, although that simply isn’t so. In fact, the United States on an annual basis drills more oil and gas wells than any other country on earth.